BULGARIA – According to CIA’s official statistics, Bulgaria’s death rate is the 8th highest in the world. Afghanistan, war-torn for decades, is seventh. Somalia is ninth. The countries in top 7 have gone through sustained armed conflict, famine, genocide, apartheid and a nuclear disaster. Bulgarian went through 23 years of democratic transition.

The above fact hints at a key reason for the mass demonstrations that have marked 2013 and are still drawing tens of thousands of people to anti-government protests day after day: ever since the democratic changes of 1989, life in Bulgaria has been unduly hard. CONTINUE READING

PROTESTERS ON THE STREETS OF SOFIA NEED YOUR SUPPORT

BULGARIA – If you had 24 years to change and refine a country’s policies, would you twist those to your benefit?

At first glance, beautiful Bulgaria has a lot of democracy going on — laws, elections, a parliament, a president, markets, EU membership, free will, the works, we have it. Look from the outside, and it’s clearly there. The inside of this strange hologram, though, feels very different, especially if you’re a Bulgarian.

Get the gist? I’ll bet you a fiver that you’re not getting the scale.

People are out in the streets, protesting. All major cities — Sofia, Plovdiv, Varna, Burgas — six days and counting, tens of thousands of Bulgarians rallying for change, demanding that the incompetent “expert” government steps down, and that parliament is dissolved. CONTINUE READING